Microforest II | Autumn 2021
In autumn and winter 2021 the project focused on teaching students a variety of old techniques including woodwork, charcoal making and tree planting while learning how to tend to the Microforest. Over the course of four sessions from September to November 2021 students of Blakestown Community School participated in a series of activities led by artists Gareth Kennedy, Niall Mc Coitir and Eoin Donnelly.
Seanchaí Microforest is a micro forest on the grounds of Blakestown Community School created by Gareth Kennedy and the members of the transition year art class along with their teacher Mary Quinn. Over time Seanchaí Microforest developed as a space for outdoor learning and art making.
In this year's programme, the transition year students of the art class of Blakestown Community School were introduced to the Microforest by artist Gareth Kennedy. During a series of four sessions from September to November 2021, they learned a variety of old techniques. After an introduction about the role and meaning of a Microforest, students took part in a hands-on session of weeding, digging and tree planting. They also learned about local plants and how to identify them with Niall Mac Coitir.
The programme continued with woodworker and artist Eoin Donnelly who taught the group different old techniques ranging from wood splitting and turning, digging and mulching etc. Together they set up a campfire and a parachute tent structure which served as their shelter in the harsher months of the year. To conclude the series students learned how to make charcoal from wood and use it to draw flowers and plants inspired by those in the Microforest. The day ended with Gareth Kennedy and the students making and tasting a fully natural and organic elderberry tonic.
Participating Artists:
Gareth Kennedy / Lead Artist
Eoin Donnelly / Woodworker & Artist
Niall Mac Coitir / Artist & Writer
Gareth Kennedy is a visual artist whose work explores the social agency of the handcrafted in the 21st century and generates 'communities of interest' around the production and performance of experimental material cultures. Informed by an anthropological approach these works draw on the layered histories of a location. His projects are embedded, evolve over time, and enacted by diverse publics and individuals. His practice to date includes public art commissions, workshops, education projects, exhibitions, residencies and collaborations. In 2009, he co-represented Ireland at the 53rd Venice Biennale alongside artist Sarah Browne and their collaborative practice, Kennedy Browne. In 2015 he was long listed for the prestigious VISIBLE Award for Die Unbequeme Wissenschaft (‘The Uncomfortable Science’). He is currently undertaking commissions for the National Children's Hospital and Fingal County Council in Dublin. He teaches Sculpture and Expanded Practice and is lead on the Studio+ FIELD module at NCAD, Dublin which explores experimental and experiential pedagogies in response to a derelict brownfield site beside the college.
Eoin Donnelly has spent most of his life working in native broadleaved woodlands, managing and utilizing their timbers. Working with his family and many master-craftsmen over the years, sharing their knowledge and learning their skills. His latest project has been the construction of the Viking Long House at the National Botanical Gardens Dublin. The Viking house has been built to commemorate the one thousandth anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf and is a faithful reinterpretation of a Viking house of the period, built using Irish native materials, Oak, Hazel and Ash, and the building techniques and tools of the relevant periods.
Niall Mac Coitir grew up in a bilingual environment in Dublin with a love of Irish history, culture and nature instilled into him. An active member of the Irish Wildlife Trust, he works for Fingal County Council. His other books are Ireland's Trees: Myths, Legends & Folklore, Ireland's Animals: Myths, Legends & Folklore, and . Ireland's Birds: Myths, Legends & Folklore.
Thank you to Mary Quinn, teacher at Blakestown Community School and our partners and supporters for the project, Fingal County Council Arts Office, Blakestown Community School and The Arts Council Ireland. Video by Arcade Film.
